'\" t
.\"     Title: createdb
.\"    Author: The PostgreSQL Global Development Group
.\" Generator: DocBook XSL Stylesheets v1.79.1 <http://docbook.sf.net/>
.\"      Date: 2021
.\"    Manual: PostgreSQL 13.3 Documentation
.\"    Source: PostgreSQL 13.3
.\"  Language: English
.\"
.TH "CREATEDB" "1" "2021" "PostgreSQL 13.3" "PostgreSQL 13.3 Documentation"
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.SH "NAME"
createdb \- create a new PostgreSQL database
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.HP \w'\fBcreatedb\fR\ 'u
\fBcreatedb\fR [\fIconnection\-option\fR...] [\fIoption\fR...] [\fIdbname\fR\ [\fIdescription\fR]]
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.PP
createdb
creates a new
PostgreSQL
database\&.
.PP
Normally, the database user who executes this command becomes the owner of the new database\&. However, a different owner can be specified via the
\fB\-O\fR
option, if the executing user has appropriate privileges\&.
.PP
createdb
is a wrapper around the
SQL
command
CREATE DATABASE (\fBCREATE_DATABASE\fR(7))\&. There is no effective difference between creating databases via this utility and via other methods for accessing the server\&.
.SH "OPTIONS"
.PP
createdb
accepts the following command\-line arguments:
.PP
\fIdbname\fR
.RS 4
Specifies the name of the database to be created\&. The name must be unique among all
PostgreSQL
databases in this cluster\&. The default is to create a database with the same name as the current system user\&.
.RE
.PP
\fIdescription\fR
.RS 4
Specifies a comment to be associated with the newly created database\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-D \fR\fB\fItablespace\fR\fR
.br
\fB\-\-tablespace=\fR\fB\fItablespace\fR\fR
.RS 4
Specifies the default tablespace for the database\&. (This name is processed as a double\-quoted identifier\&.)
.RE
.PP
\fB\-e\fR
.br
\fB\-\-echo\fR
.RS 4
Echo the commands that
createdb
generates and sends to the server\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-E \fR\fB\fIencoding\fR\fR
.br
\fB\-\-encoding=\fR\fB\fIencoding\fR\fR
.RS 4
Specifies the character encoding scheme to be used in this database\&. The character sets supported by the
PostgreSQL
server are described in
Section\ \&23.3.1\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-l \fR\fB\fIlocale\fR\fR
.br
\fB\-\-locale=\fR\fB\fIlocale\fR\fR
.RS 4
Specifies the locale to be used in this database\&. This is equivalent to specifying both
\fB\-\-lc\-collate\fR
and
\fB\-\-lc\-ctype\fR\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-\-lc\-collate=\fR\fB\fIlocale\fR\fR
.RS 4
Specifies the LC_COLLATE setting to be used in this database\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-\-lc\-ctype=\fR\fB\fIlocale\fR\fR
.RS 4
Specifies the LC_CTYPE setting to be used in this database\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-O \fR\fB\fIowner\fR\fR
.br
\fB\-\-owner=\fR\fB\fIowner\fR\fR
.RS 4
Specifies the database user who will own the new database\&. (This name is processed as a double\-quoted identifier\&.)
.RE
.PP
\fB\-T \fR\fB\fItemplate\fR\fR
.br
\fB\-\-template=\fR\fB\fItemplate\fR\fR
.RS 4
Specifies the template database from which to build this database\&. (This name is processed as a double\-quoted identifier\&.)
.RE
.PP
\fB\-V\fR
.br
\fB\-\-version\fR
.RS 4
Print the
createdb
version and exit\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-?\fR
.br
\fB\-\-help\fR
.RS 4
Show help about
createdb
command line arguments, and exit\&.
.RE
.PP
The options
\fB\-D\fR,
\fB\-l\fR,
\fB\-E\fR,
\fB\-O\fR, and
\fB\-T\fR
correspond to options of the underlying SQL command
CREATE DATABASE (\fBCREATE_DATABASE\fR(7)); see there for more information about them\&.
.PP
createdb
also accepts the following command\-line arguments for connection parameters:
.PP
\fB\-h \fR\fB\fIhost\fR\fR
.br
\fB\-\-host=\fR\fB\fIhost\fR\fR
.RS 4
Specifies the host name of the machine on which the server is running\&. If the value begins with a slash, it is used as the directory for the Unix domain socket\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-p \fR\fB\fIport\fR\fR
.br
\fB\-\-port=\fR\fB\fIport\fR\fR
.RS 4
Specifies the TCP port or the local Unix domain socket file extension on which the server is listening for connections\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-U \fR\fB\fIusername\fR\fR
.br
\fB\-\-username=\fR\fB\fIusername\fR\fR
.RS 4
User name to connect as\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-w\fR
.br
\fB\-\-no\-password\fR
.RS 4
Never issue a password prompt\&. If the server requires password authentication and a password is not available by other means such as a
\&.pgpass
file, the connection attempt will fail\&. This option can be useful in batch jobs and scripts where no user is present to enter a password\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-W\fR
.br
\fB\-\-password\fR
.RS 4
Force
createdb
to prompt for a password before connecting to a database\&.
.sp
This option is never essential, since
createdb
will automatically prompt for a password if the server demands password authentication\&. However,
createdb
will waste a connection attempt finding out that the server wants a password\&. In some cases it is worth typing
\fB\-W\fR
to avoid the extra connection attempt\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\-\-maintenance\-db=\fR\fB\fIdbname\fR\fR
.RS 4
Specifies the name of the database to connect to when creating the new database\&. If not specified, the
postgres
database will be used; if that does not exist (or if it is the name of the new database being created),
template1
will be used\&. This can be a
connection string\&. If so, connection string parameters will override any conflicting command line options\&.
.RE
.SH "ENVIRONMENT"
.PP
\fBPGDATABASE\fR
.RS 4
If set, the name of the database to create, unless overridden on the command line\&.
.RE
.PP
\fBPGHOST\fR
.br
\fBPGPORT\fR
.br
\fBPGUSER\fR
.RS 4
Default connection parameters\&.
\fBPGUSER\fR
also determines the name of the database to create, if it is not specified on the command line or by
\fBPGDATABASE\fR\&.
.RE
.PP
\fBPG_COLOR\fR
.RS 4
Specifies whether to use color in diagnostic messages\&. Possible values are
always,
auto
and
never\&.
.RE
.PP
This utility, like most other
PostgreSQL
utilities, also uses the environment variables supported by
libpq
(see
Section\ \&33.14)\&.
.SH "DIAGNOSTICS"
.PP
In case of difficulty, see
CREATE DATABASE (\fBCREATE_DATABASE\fR(7))
and
\fBpsql\fR(1)
for discussions of potential problems and error messages\&. The database server must be running at the targeted host\&. Also, any default connection settings and environment variables used by the
libpq
front\-end library will apply\&.
.SH "EXAMPLES"
.PP
To create the database
demo
using the default database server:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
$ \fBcreatedb demo\fR
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.PP
To create the database
demo
using the server on host
eden, port 5000, using the
template0
template database, here is the command\-line command and the underlying SQL command:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
$ \fBcreatedb \-p 5000 \-h eden \-T template0 \-e demo\fR
CREATE DATABASE demo TEMPLATE template0;
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.SH "SEE ALSO"
\fBdropdb\fR(1), CREATE DATABASE (\fBCREATE_DATABASE\fR(7))
